Miserly Cost Cutting

The faster I pay my debt the faster I can enjoy financial freedom. If that entails short term sacrifice, so be it. In January I reduced two recurring expenses: mobile phone service and Internet.

1. I cut my mobile phone service to the lowest plan available through AT&T. I reduced my free monthly minutes from 700 to 550, saving $10 per month. Even though my partner and I are on a family plan, this should be enough minutes. I have "rollover minutes" so that should help, too.
2. I also lowered my DSL from 6MB to 768kB. This reduced my monthly bill from $47.95 to $19.95. The only reason I had not done this sooner is because I stream a lot of movies from Netflix, which accounts for almost 100% of my entertainment expense. I did buy a new antennae for my TV for $20 which picks up twice the channels as the broken one I had been using.

I'll see whether this slower speed is adequate for streaming movies. I have my doubts (it just went into effect so I haven't tried it out yet) but can easily switch back if necessary.

I doubt my job will last much longer so I want to be proactive about cutting costs now. These two cuts reduce my ongoing expenses by $37 per month... More than $400 a year!

February Goals

During January I achieved all four of my monthly goals. I expect February to be a solid month, except that I may be unemployed once again by the end of the month.

February Goals:

• Last month I earned $926 in mystery shopping income. Since I won't be shopping as many gas stations due to rotation requirements, my income will be less in February. I will earn $500 in mystery shopping income.
  
• Last month I spent $141 on food. I will spend less than $140 on food this month.
  
• Last month I spent $47 on fuel (thanks to mystery shopping). In February I will spend $175 on fuel. I have a daily commute of 90 miles which makes fuel one of my larger expenses.
  
• My #1 financial priority is paying down my credit cards. By the end of February I will reduce credit card debt to below $36,000.
• I will pay off my Prosper loan in February.
  

Reviewing My January Goals

During January I did okay with my goals. This blog keeps me accountable.


January Goals vs. Actual:

• Last month I earned $926 in mystery shopping income; my goal was $600. SURPASSED!
  
• Last month I spent $141 on food (sames as last month); my goal was to spend $5 per day ($155). SURPASSED!
• Last month I spent $47 on fuel; my goal was $175. Even better, my employer reimbursed me just over $47 for mileage, so you could say my net was zero spent this month. SURPASSED!
• I reduced credit card debt to $38,562. My goal was $42,500. SURPASSED!
  

I achieved all of my January goals! I am especially happy with my spending on fuel. I drive 90 miles round trip to work each day. I cut this expense drastically by mystery shopping more than 50 gas stations in January.

My January Income: $8,170

January was a decent month based on a much lower salary at my new job. I have worked two full months at my new company, but I don't think I will stay much longer. I might explain later, but I try not to complain and can't think of many positive things to say about this new job.

January Income
$2,000 Full-Time Day Job
$770 Mystery Shopping*
$198 Change in Value of Retirement Accounts (Roth IRA and Rollover IRA)
$4006 Rental Income*
$6,974 Total Income for January
*note that the mystery shopping income will always vary from the monthly summary amounts I post. Here I report actual payments received (cash basis accounting) whereas my monthly mystery shopping update I report the amount I earned for that month. Rental income was closer to "normal" this month.

Special/One-Time Income in January
$1,000 sold several airline vouchers
$75 participated in a focus group
$121 received a Black Friday bonus for opening a checking account with ING
$1,196 Special/One-Time Income in January

Currently all 7 of my rental properties are occupied. I don't expect to have to deal with any vacancies at least until April.

A Month in the Life of a Mystery Shopper

I exceeded my January goal of earning $600 in mystery shopping income. In fact, I earned $925.71 in fees and $530.46 in reimbursements last month. This is on top of income from my full-time job, so I'm really happy with this.

More than 1/3 of my income was from gas stations this month. I shopped over 50 gas stations in January. Unfortunately, this means February will be much lighter because the company I do these for shops in 2 month rotations (in other words, I basically do these particular stations every other month). The second largest contributor came from merchandising. The balance came from restaurants, office supply stores and a few other oddball shops.

My Frugal Miser - Cut Digital Clutter with Free Online Storage

There are several websites offering free remote storage of your electronic files. I am much more comfortable storing my data offsite for a couple of reasons:

1. Security. If my laptop gets stolen, I know my files have not been compromised.
2. Convenience. Often I am at work when I realize I need a file from home. Or I'm going on vacation and don't want to bring my computer. Storing files online means I can access them anywhere.
3. Performance. I'm not a computing expert, but generally the computers I have had have worked better when there are fewer files taking up space.

As a frugal miser, I don't see the need to pay for online storage (even though I'd be willing to pay a nominal amount as this is an invaluable service to me). Fortunately, there are a few places that will store your files for free:

• Microsoft's Sky Drive. I have been using Sky Drive for a couple of years, and I can personally vouch for its ease of use. Since it's from Microsoft, I am comfortable that the service won't just disappear one day, taking my files with it! They give you 25 GB free. It uses the familiar folder structure for managing your files. The only downside I have found is that you can't move or download multiple files at once.
• MediaFire. I haven't used this service, but according to the website, the free version allows you to store an unlimited amount of information. The difference between the free version and the one you pay for seems to be that you can store files larger than 200 MB, your storage page is ad-free, and you can do bulk downloads.
• ADrive. Their "basic" (free) plan includes 50 GB free space. Upgrading gives you similar benefits as MediaFire (no ads). One feature that caught my eye was the search tool. With Sky Drive, I haven't found an easy way to search for files, so it is especially important to keep my files organized, both by carefully using folders and in the way I name my files.
• Photo Sites. You can store your photos with each of the above solutions, but if that's all you plan to store, there are a few free places to park your pics. Since most people like to share their photos, this might be a good venue for you to do that. The major sites I am aware of include Flickr, Google's Picasa, and Shutterfly.

Keeping your files offsite offers many benefits. Since one of my goals in 2010 is to be paperless, this helps me do that while having the peace of mind knowing my important documents won't be stolen. Besides that, I like the portability of accessing my information from anywhere.

My Frugal Miser - Cut Your Cable but Still Watch Your Shows

Cutting out your cable or satellite bill is one of the easiest, most pain-free ways to reduce expenses. Remember, cutting out recurring expenses, like cable, is the most important step in gaining financial freedom.

Nearly everything you watch on cable is available elsewhere. Here's how I do it:

• I use a regular HD antennae to watch broadcast TV (free).
• I use Hulu.com to watch even more shows (free).
• I subscribe to the lowest-priced Netflix plan that allows for unlimited streaming ($8.99/mo).
• I purchased a Netflix-enabled ROKU to stream thousands of movies and TV shows to my TV.
• I rent DVDs through Netflix to catch the latest movies and shows that aren't available for streaming.
• When I get the itch for something else, I either 1) go to the dollar theatre; 2) rent from the Redbox; or 3) rent from the local library.

Find out where your favorite show can be watched: http://www.cancelcable.com/db/showfinder.php.

Most months my only entertainment expense is the $9 I pay to Netflix. Also, when I cut the cable in 2003 I realized that there is so much more I can do than watch TV. Nowadays, I spend a few hours a week (seriously- maybe 10 hours total) watching TV, and usually am doing something else like checking email or working online at the same time.